Anambra 2021: Valentine Ozigbo Wins PDP Governorship Primary Election

A banker, Valentine Ozigbo, has emerged as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State.The 50-year-old Mr Ozigbo polled 62 out of 218 votes to beat 13 other aspirants who were on the ballot.

Some aspirants had withdrawn from the primary out of protest because of the new list of delegates that was released by the National Working Committee of the party.

Besides, a faction of the party had held a parallel primary elsewhere in Awka which produced Ugochukwu Uba as its own candidate.

The candidates defeated by Mr Ozigbo included Uche Ukwunife, a serving senator, who scored 44 votes and came third in the primary which was conducted late into Saturday night.

Obiora Okonkwo, a billionaire businessman, came second with 58 votes.

Mr Ozigbo was the president and chief executive officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) from 2019 to 2020.

He has worked with several banks in Nigeria, including Diamond Bank and the United Bank for Africa.

Mr Ozigbo will be contesting against a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the November 6 governorship election in the state.

APGA is the ruling party in the state.

The All Progressives Congress was yet to declare its candidate for the election at the time of this report.